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Creating Journalism in a New Way: Real World... Real Time

By Staff
posted Mar 2, 2010, 15:12

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Back Edition Spotlight: May 2009, StudentFilmmakers MagazineCreating Journalism in a New Way
Real World... Real Time

by Carl Filoreto

 

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It’s 7:15 in the morning, and in Tempe, Arizona, the speed dial is already active. Simultaneously, in four other locations spanning the nation, eager bureau chiefs are joining in the daily conference call to the mother ship in New York. Story ideas are pitched and dissected, resources are gathered and committed, and a working plan for the day morphs and evolves from the spirited conversation. Multi-tasking editors in Manhattan confirm the day’s story list, and agree to check on progress throughout the day. Everyone hits the ground running.

(Pictured) From left to right: Jason Tarr, Chris Cuomo, Robin Roberts, Diane Sawyer, Meghan Lisson, and Sabina Kuriakose. The photo was taken when we - Meghan, Sabina and I - traveled with the GMA crew on the Whistle Stop Tour from Rome, NY to Niagara Falls, NY.

(Pictured) From left to right: Jason Tarr, Chris Cuomo, Robin Roberts, Diane Sawyer, Meghan Lisson, and Sabina Kuriakose. The photo was taken when we - Meghan, Sabina and I - traveled with the GMA crew on the Whistle Stop Tour from Rome, NY to Niagara Falls, NY.

On the surface, it’s simply the daily ritual enacted by a number of national broadcast news organizations. In this instance, though, there’s one profound difference. That phone call from Tempe came from Emily Graham, a senior broadcast journalism major at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. And she’s calling the producers and editors at ABC News in New York as part of the ABC News On Campus news gathering program.

The idea to establish working network news bureaus at college campuses across the country was spawned by John Green, executive producer of special project development at ABC News. “When I saw the recent wave of college graduates, it was so clear to me that they were creating journalism in a different way,” Green relates. “There was so much we could learn about the digital world they were living in, and about how they use digital tools.”

(Pictured) Sabina Kuriakose and Torie Wells interviews Celina Tousignant for our “Midterm Bureau Assignment” on the hooking up culture trend.

(Pictured) Sabina Kuriakose and Torie Wells interviews Celina Tousignant for our “Midterm Bureau Assignment” on the hooking up culture trend.

Green envisioned a perfectly balanced symbiotic model. News organizations around the globe are struggling to capture new audiences, and to retain their current ones. ABC News could tap into the creative energies percolating at college campuses across the country while providing a real life work environment for the students selected into the program. The students receive an invaluable experience to hone their editorial skills while the brain trust at ABC News have the opportunity to learn about how the incredibly valuable 20 to 24 year old demographic consumes news in today’s virtual marketplace. “It’s a throwback to the old mentoring programs established by newspapers in the 50’s and 60’s,” Green adds.

He advanced the idea to ABC News president David Westin, who enthusiastically endorsed the project. More importantly, he backed the concept with a modest budget and the idea was converted into a reality. Green and his team selected five universities that have highly rated journalism schools and set up a system of satellite news bureaus at the schools.

“Here, it’s an immersion program”, explains Susan Green, the faculty advisor for the program at Arizona State. “We intend to give the students the feel of working in a news room from 9 to 6, two or three days a week.” In fact, the entire process is handled in a manner that mimics real world practices. Students apply for one of five positions at each bureau. The resumes are pared down to a manageable number and those that advance go through a rigorous interview process. Of the five lucky candidates not voted off the island, one is picked to be the bureau chief. “This just is not a chance you get every day,” relates Emily Graham, bureau chief at ASU. “For me, ABC News was a powerful draw. I’m on the phone with the Los Angeles assignment desk every day. To have that type of access is amazing.”

(Pictured) Sabina Kuriakose and Matt Gelb in Rome, NY, helping to get MOS sound for GMA and the Whistle Stop Tour.

The campus bureaus are usually attached to the newsrooms operating within each broadcast journalism school. ABC News provides the student journalists with small format cameras, computers and the software needed to perform a variety of multi-platform tasks, including video editing, writing mainstream web “print” type stories, blogging and uploading files to an FTP site. Although students are trained in both Final Cut Pro and Avid based editing systems, Avid is the work horse for the bureaus since it meshes with the editing platform at ABC News and many of their affiliated local stations.

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